Cape Perpetua Visitor Center - Siuslaw National Forest

While driving along the beautiful Oregon coast, this spot was a perfect place to take a break. There are plenty of trail options, easy access to the shoreline, and it’s a great idea to stop here first to gather information before exploring further. Inside, there are exhibits showcasing native trees and plants, along with telescopes that make it easy to take in the surrounding views. There’s also a small gift shop, and I’d highly recommend this place to anyone traveling with kids. It’s both educational and scenic—the views from the observation deck are stunning, and there are well-designed indoor and outdoor areas for enjoying the landscape.

Amazing views, giant bay windows to whale watch, 26 miles of trails from easy to difficult. Never a dull moment up here! If you have the National Parks “America the beautiful” pass put it in your dashboard signature side up and save yourself a trip back to your car. Volunteer Staff are really nice and very helpful with information. 😊

Heads up, rookies! You can get the National Park interagency past here, which I had an ink you might be the case but was an awesome surprise! There are a few super cool trails within a few hundred feet and/or within a quarter mile from here that I highly recommend also, and I included pictures of those which you can check out with the reviews right before this review to see which ones specifically the pictures are of. Note: The gal behind the counter needs to pick up the pace a little bit, though - watching her check the person out ahead of me (who bought a bunch of junk) was like putting an audiobook on .25 x speed.- couldn't have been more unnecessarily methodical or sloth like - pick up the pace lady, especially if there is a line forming. Only Jesus was perfect, though, and I shouldn't judge, but sometimes you got to turn the money tables over to wake people up and reflect a little.

Great little nature center, on the way to the Giant Spruce and down to Thor's Well. If you have an America the Beautiful National Parks pass, your parking is completely covered by it, just ask one of the park rangers.

Thank you to the ranger at the visitors center who told us where to find tide pools!!! They were epic!!!

Cape Perpetual makes for a lovely and easy hike. Thor's well is on one of the hikes, but it's not terribly advertised, so you could see it and not even realize it's there. Bring a water bottle, because they don't sell drinks in the museum gift shop, just metal water bottles for $30. They are nice bottles.

An interesting center to learn additional information about the area. You can take a short half mile trail to gonoutvto thors well or continue to drive south on 101 to get to cook chasm and thebmn thirs well will be right off the parking lot

Visitor Center is really nice, the view inside is amazing and there is plenty of insight into the Siuslaw National Forest. Plenty of parking and trail maps. Trails are maintained and marked well.

This place is a MUST stop! There is so much to see here! The visitor's center has a nice amount of information about the area. There are interactive displays and even a little coloring area for kids. The row of chairs and ottomans was my favorite. Such an awesome view out the wall of windows! The rangers are welcoming, friendly, and helpful. They offer a variety of movies in the theater upon request. There's also a small gift shop where you can buy books, souvenirs, etc. There are numerous trials in all directions from the visitor's center. We ended up taking the Thor's Well path down to see Spouting Horn and Cook's Chasm. Parts were a little steep, but the entire path is paved. Next time, we want to take the trail down to the Giant Spruce. The parking lot is large, and restrooms are available by the visitor's center. We spent about 2 hours here and look forward to a return trip! Highly recommend.

I actually started my hike at Overlook Rd. above the center. The trail to the summit was about a mile upwards. Nicely wooded and sweeping views when you reach the top. You can extend your hike with a small Loop (Amelia?), which also has a stone structure. It connects with an another trail but I decided to descend from where I came. If you prefer, you can drive to the lot by the summit.

My only complaint about this place would be that they should add signage out on Hwy 101 indicating that this is also the location of the trailhead to hike to Thor's Well. As it is, you cannot find that out easily without stopping in here first. That said, my visit here was short and productive. They sell various types of coastal parking passes here, so it is a good place to stop and pick one of those up (to avoid having to deal with paying separately if you are making multiple stops over more than an afternoon). The staff was friendly and helpful. We did not make use of it, but there appeared to be a large common room with chairs and a huge window facing the coast. This would be a nice place to stop and rest if you were doing a thru hike along the coast. They also had public restrooms adjacent to the fairly large parking lot. There was no cell signal here, at least for Verizon and T-Mobile.

I don't know how anyone could give this place fewer than 5 stars. I really appreciated the time the rangers took to explain the hikes and rock formations down below. We visited at low tide, which was a bummer because apparently the most interesting wave/rock interactions happen at high tide. However, it was definitely still worth a visit. PRO TIP: Take some time to walk through the museum here. It is 100% free and very interesting. It really gave us a foundation on the local wildlife to better understand what we were seeing during our trip!

National Forest recreational area. We stopped for an hour plus hiking down and round the park. Easy and not so easy trails. Lovely helpful staff and tidy welcome centre. Clean loos. Parked in the upper lot left our 7 day receipt on rhe dash from payment to enter crater lake national park the other day.

We stopped driving north and got instructions for walking the look out loop. It's a nice walk. It just about the right length to stretch your legs. Good view of the ocean, which you can appreciate that you can't do while driving the 101